Monday, February 01, 2016

Some Soccer News for Feb 1, 2016

It's Day 32 of 2016.

USA got 2016 off on the right foot offensively with a 3 goal output in the Sunday friendly against Iceland.

Sun Jan 31USA 3-2 Iceland - USA goals by Jozy Altidore, Michael Orozco + Steve Birnbaum. ICE goals by Kristinn Steindorsson + Aron Sigurdarson.
-Who had a good game?: Orozco (goal), Acosta (confidence), Bradley (passing), Jones (muscle), Altidore (goal), Nguyen (passing), Birnbaum (assist, goal), Kiesewetter (crossing)
-Who had a bad game?: Orozco (goals against), Finlay (lack of confidence), Zardes (missed open goal)
-USA went behind twice and came back, that is both bad and good.
-Defense limited Icelands chances, but let those few chances count.
-Waited way too long to make more changes. These young guys need more time on the field.
-Steindorsson formerly of Columbus Crew with the first goal for Iceland.
-Sigurdarson who got the other Iceland goal used to be a member of Stiff Little Fingers.
-With less than 9000 in attendance the stadium was a sad sight on television.

Next: Fri Feb 5USA v Canada - 9:15pm CT on FS1.

dN

Omar Gonzalez is riding high to start the season with Pachuca. The are the only unbeaten team left in Liga MX after 4 rounds won on Saturday 3-1 v 2nd place Monterrey.
-Up next: Sun Feb 7 at Pumas in the DF.

dN

Sadly Brad Guzan had a horrendous weekend as he was back in goal for the FA Cup and Aston Villa got trounced 0-4 at home by Manchester City.

dN

Danny Williams scored for Reading as they rolled over Walsall in the FA Cup 4-0.

dN

John Brooks signed a new long term contract to stay at Hertha. Great for him.

dN

17 year old Christian Pulisic made his senior team debut for Dortmund coming on in the 68th min of a 2-0 home win over Alfredo Morales and Ingolstadt. Incredible!
-All we need to know about young Pulisic. By our main man Greg Seltzer at MLSsoccer.com.

Sporting KC has sold Hungarian forward Krisztian Nemeth to Al-Gharafa in Qatar.

dN

Its official for Matt Miazga, he is now a Chelsea player.

dN

LA has added Dutch defensive midfielder Nigel De Jong of Milan to their roster of aging European stars. They have a lot of games to play this season. Is this team gonna be too old? Or perfectly experienced to handle it all.

dN

One of my favorite MLS players (who I know is also getting old) Marcelo Sarvas has been shipped from Colorado to DC United. Good move for him.

dN

Colorado may also have made one of those moves that flies under the radar and could be huge in the end: Signed Swiss forward Shkelzen Gashi who has scored 41 goals in the past 2 seasons in the Swiss Super League for Basel and Grasshopper.
-He has made 10 appearances for the Albania national team.

dN

Eddie Johnson may be done as a pro player, but it looks like he is just getting started in life. Interesting words here.

Four of the worlds top ten spending teams in the Winter transfer window are Chinese. They are all in the $30-40 Million spent pile. When it crashes its gonna crash HARD.
-In a similar story, Brazilian players are flocking to China for ridiculous money. By Ewan MacKenna of the New York Times.

dN

Manchester City has publicly announced the hiring of Bayern coach Pep Guardiola for NEXT season.
-Should be a real fun couple of months for the current coach Manuel Pellegrini. Oof!